Stranded in Time
by Chronos the Cat
Summary: A collection of Chrono Trigger story ideas and fragments, all with the shared theme of the time traveling cast becoming stranded in a time-period not their own. Formerly collected under the title "Temporal Branches".
1. Stranded in Time: The Stone Age

Author's Note: This "story" is a collection of several abandoned Chrono Trigger story ideas I had, all with the shared theme of the time traveling cast becoming stranded in a time-period not their own. Should anyone wish to make use of the following ideas, plans, and/or story fragments, feel free - just let me know about it and give me credit.

In this chapter I present an abandoned prelude to "Stranded in Time: 65 Million BC", followed by my plot ideas for said story.

**Stranded In Time - Stone Age 65 Million BC:**

"**Children of the Dawn" OR "Water, Fire, and Lightning"**

A "Chrono Trigger" Alternate-History Fan-Fiction

by "Chronos the Cat"

As the sound of children laughing grew louder, Robo paused in his shoveling and glanced across the small village to where a group of seven fur-clad children were playing in the snow. The "snow-bot" two of them had been making stood unfinished, and not far from it the snow-sleds three others had been using lay forgotten. Now, all seven were in the midst of a snowball fight.

Not one to waste time, Robo resumed his shoveling, though he calculated a high probability that the children's antics would bring them in his direction, at which point his work would be interrupted.

A snowball splating against his chestplate soon verified his prediction. Robot glanced up to see a boy with long purple hair in a pony-tail hiding behind a blonde girl, while a girl with short red hair laughed nervously a few feet away from the couple. "Oops," the red-head said.

Robo turned to the blonde. "Ayla, who threw the snowball that hit me?"

Silently, Ayla pointed at the red-head.

Robo turned to the red-head. "Leene, was your striking me truly an accident?"

With an uncertain hopefulness, Leene said, "Yes?"

Robo stood there a moment, then said, "I see." He turned, and started shoveling again. The kids were just about to start playing again, when a shovel-load of snow went flying farther than the rest, and landed on Leene. With a silent chuckle, Robo said, "Oops!"

The children all started laughing, and with that, the snowball fight resumed, now with Robo launching snow with his shovel at anyone who dared throw snow at him.

...Later, the children sat around a fire inside Robo's house, warming up. The children were down to loincloths (and tops for the girls), and Robo was hanging the rest of their clothes nearby to dry.

When he was done, he walked back to the children, knowing what was coming.

"Tell us story!" Tata, a boy with spiked purple hair said. Crono, the boy with the purple pony-tail, nodded. "Yeah, tell story of heroes Crono, Marle, Lucca and Ayla!"

Leah, a blonde haired girl with glasses, added, "And Robo! Robo is hero too! Beat Reptites with others!"

As the other children added their encouragement, Robo sat down. He held up a hand for silence. "Very well, I will tell of the adventures of my friends and myself."

"Yay!" the children cheered.

"It all began in the year 1000 of the Kingdom of Gaurdia..."

"Where that?" Grok, a boy who hadn't heard the story before, asked.

"Uncertain. The geography of the land changes considerably between now and now."

"Huh?"

Leah told Grok, "It no matter. Kingdom no there yet."

Grok asked, "Then where Kingdom now?"

"Nowhere. Kingdom not made yet."

"But Robo say it was."

Robo spoke up. "Actually, I was being inaccurate. As Leah has pointed out, Guardia has not yet been founded; as such, I should have said, 'It will all begin in the year 1000 of the Kingdom of Guardia...'"

"Oh. Why no say so?"

Crono, Leene, and Ayla glanced at each other conspiratorially. Always the bravest, Leene said, "Why don't you tell it right? Use 'future-tense'!"

Crono added, "Yeah! Future-tense fun!"

Ayla nodded.

Robo gave a theatrical sigh. "Very well. It all will begin approximately sixty-four million years from now, in the year one-thousand of the Kingdom of Guardia..."

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_Notes_: Unfortunately, that was as far as I got with writing this story in detail.

What follows are my plans for where I was going to go with this story.

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_**Stranded in Time - 65 MYA **_

_**Plans:**_

After the battle with Nizbel in the Reptites' Lair, Azala escapes with the Gate Key. Crono and company want to follow him to Tyrano Fortress, but Ayla warns that the team isn't strong enough for that yet. They will have to wait, and train.

_Optional Storyline: "Reptite Time War"_

_Azala and his scientists figure the Gate Key out. Use it to send a team into the Mystic Mountain Gate. Team is more than three, so wind up at End of Time. _

_ From there, investigate open time-gates. If Gaspar and Spekkio try to stop them, Gaspar at least is killed, and possibly Spekkio as well. In AD 600 and AD 1000 the reptites find humans to have taken control, the Reptite species almost extinct and most of the Dinosaurs completely so. AD 1999 and AD 2300, meanwhile, reveal the threat of Lavos, and see the rise of a new intelligent "species", the robots._

_ The Reptite team return to Azala to report on their findings. A plot is devised to bring about the return of the reptites in AD 600. (Lavos is a problem for another day.) This plot involves building a colony in AD 600, and equipping it with the best of Saurian breeding and robot technology. (Possibly playing both sides of the Mystic War against one another, helping to raise the stakes and prevent either side from achieving complete victory.) When their numbers are sufficient, and the war between Guardia and the Mystics has reached its' conclusion, the Reptites will swoop in to subdue the winner and re-assert their dominance over the Earth._

_ A reptite base is set up at the End of Time, and the Gate Key is stored there. Work is begun to replicate it._

Finally Crono and compnay battle Azala again. The Gate Key is (lost into the lava below / _still at the End of Time_). Lavos falls to Earth, and the team finally realizes that they're in the right time to fight Lavos after all. They begin project to dig down to Lavos; however, it will take years.

_The Reptite colonists in AD 600 learn of the Giant's Claw, and join forces with the reptites and other saurians living there. These new saurians are the product of millions of years of breeding, and are far more powerful than the saurians of the past. However, they are without clear leadership, and suffer the weaknesses of the inbred (such as vulnerability to disease). The joining of the groups shall end the first problem immediately, and the second within a few generations._

_The War between Guardia and the Mystics ends when Magus summons Lavos, only to have Lavos kill him and destroy his castle before returning to slumber._

_The Guardians quickly force the Mystics into hiding... But before the Guardians can begin rebuilding, the Reptites attack, and conquer both Guardia and the Mystics' continent._

20 years after 65 Million years ago: Crono, Marle, and Lucca are all well into adulthood, and have kids. (Either Crono married both, or one of the girls found a cave-man she liked.) They dress like cavemen – Crono in boots and loincloth, Lucca in boots and torso-covering, Marle in fur bikini (not too daringly cut – the planet is cooling, after all).

Crono's team, including Ayla, go into the caves, battle Lavos, and win.

Epilogue (basic storyline version): Crono, Lucca, and Marle are warped from the death of Lavos to 1000 AD. Lucca begins work on new gate-key so they can return to the Stone Age to get their kids. Marle returns to castle to try and reconcile with father – if he'll even admit she's who she claims to be.

_Epilogue (Reptite Time War version): Crono, Lucca, and Marle warped to the future by the death of Lavos, leaving Ayla to head back to the village alone. Knows they'll be back for their kids, but promises to look after them in the mean-time._

_Meanwhile, Crono, Lucca, and Marle find themselves in Truce, 1020 AD – but a Truce inhabited by technologically advanced Reptites!_

_**Reptitite Time War, Part Two:**_

_ At the End of Time, the Reptites discover that the landscape of the AD time-periods has been altered - now several islands float above the surface of the landscape. (Without Lavos, only a civil war between the Enlightened and Earthbound ended Zeal, and not all the islands fell – just enough to break the cloud-cover and end the Ice Age.) Those who were in AD 620 at the time of the change now remember it having always been this way. Also changed is 1999 and 2300, which now show no sign of Lavos. In an odd quirk of temporal mechanics, none of the technology taken from the previous version of 2300 has been altered by the shift in history, and those in AD 620 at the time of the shift still remember Lavos..._

_Those traveling to 2300 are happy to report that in the new future, Reptites still rule._

_In 1020, Crono, Marle, and Lucca set out on a quest to acquire or make a new Gate Key. They succeed, travel into the End of Time, and destroy the base there, and travel back to AD 620 to prevent the Reptite conquest._

_With the Reptites defeated, the timeline returns to a form close to the one Crono and company remember. Crono, Marle and Lucca return to the stone age for their kids, then to the present to try and rebuild their lives._

Note: Originally I considered having an adaptation of Chrono Cross as a sequel to this story. However, I failed to take into consideration that without the version of events in Zeal caused by Crono and company in canon, much if not all of Chrono Cross wouldn't have happened. (Schala wouldn't have been bonded with the Time Devourer, which would mean Kid would never be created and Belthesar would have had no reason to initiate Project Kid. And according to my current understanding of events, without Project Kid there would be no Time Crash - and the only part of El Nido that would exist in the present would be Gaia's Navel. Meanwhile, Dalton wouldn't have wound up in Porre, so Guardia would never have fallen to it.)

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**Next: **Another abandoned story concept of mine featuring the Chrono cast stranded in time - this time in 12,000 BC.


	2. Stranded in Time: The Dark Ages

Author's Note: I here present my plans for "Stranded in Time: 12,000 BC". Yes, it's short.

**Stranded in Time:**

**Ice Age 12,000 BC – Vengance on Lavos**

**by Chronos the Cat**

Plans:

The Epoch does not "follow" the team to the Last Village after the Fall of Zeal. The Team – minus Crono, of course – finds themselves as part of the group stranded on the island.

Dalton shows up. Defeat him and gain the Blackbird. Now can travel to the island with the cave with the portal – but Magus & Schala's seal remains.

Then the Black Omen appears in the sky...

Scene: Meet with Magus. He warns Marle that if she gets caught up in getting revenge on Lavos for Crono's death, it could consume her life, as it did his. However, if they find a way to confront Lavos, count Magus in.

Try to make way into Omen, but not strong enough yet. (Weeks/Months/Years?) spent training.

Finally (alongside Magus?) battle through Omen, defeat Zeal and Lavos.

(When are they deposited? Back in c. 12,000 BC, or in AD 1000?)

Epilogue (12,000 BC Version): Can Lucca scrounge up enough up enough Zeal tech to build a new Epoch? Or can they find where Epoch crashed and repair it? If not, they must live out their lives in the past, but if Lucca can get a workable time-machine going, when the group reach the end of time, Gaspar gives them the Time Egg and send them on a quest to save Crono.

Epilogue (1000 AD Version): Marle and Lucca are home at last, and Lavos defeated... But Chrono is still dead... Luckily they still have the Gate Key, and Gaspar has a Time Egg to give them...


	3. Stranded in Time: The Middle Ages

Author's Note: Here I present the prologue to "Stranded in Time – 600 AD", followed by my plot ideas.

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**Stranded In Time:**

**Middle Ages AD 600 – Yearnings of the Wind**

**by Chronos the Cat**

**Prelude – Millenial Fair AD 1000:**

Crono grasped the Pendant in his hand as Lucca and Taban charged up the machine. Threads of blue electricity crawled across the Telepod, then, the swirling blue vortex opened up again. Crono disappeared in a flash of blue light, and the sparks that appeared in his place were drawn into the portal. Crono appeared again for a moment, before the portal closed.

_Several days later..._

"There's no other way, Dad. I need more readings if I'm going to find a way to open the Gate at will from the other side."

"But, isn't there another way to get those readings without stranding yourself in another time?" Taban pleaded with Lucca as Lucca stepped up onto the Telepod.

Lucca looked at her father sadly. "It would take years. And from what we've already discovered, we know time is passing in the other time period, as well. I promised Crono I'd come after him – I won't abandon him!"

Tears filled Taban's eyes, and he nodded. "Very well. You come home as soon as you find a way, though, you hear?"

"Of course, Dad." Lucca got down off the Telepod and gave him a hug, then stepped back on it.

Becoming (mostly) all business, Taban stepped up to the controls. "Setting systems to reproduce the Gate. Do you have the pendant-stand in? The sensors for the experiment? You notes and anything you think you'll need?"

Lucca nodded. "Of course. I'm ready."

"All right then. Good luck." Taban began charging up the machine. Lucca held up the device she'd constructed to stand in for the Pendant. It would, hopefully, one day be part of a Gate-Key that would allow her to open Gates through time just by inserting it into a potential Gate. For now, it would redirect the energies of the Telepod to create a gate to the time period Marle and Crono were in.

The "pendant" began glowing in a pulse, and blue electricity danced over the Telepod. The Gate opened between the Telepod stands, and Lucca was dissolved into her component molecules, those molecules reforming into her inside the portal. Finally, the portal closed, and she was gone.

Taban no longer held back the tears. "Please come back, Lucca..."

_AD 600 – The Middle Ages:_

Lucca ran down the hall of the castle to Crono. "I'm sorry it took so long. Did you find the Girl?"

"..."

"Gone?! What do you mean?"

"..."

"I see... I thought she looked familiar... She must be Princess Nadia!"

Crono gave an expression of shock.

"As I recall from history, someone kidnapped Queen Leene at one point, but she was eventually rescued. However, when Nadia showed up, they must have mistaken her for the Queen, and called off the search.

"But... If the Queen dies in this time-period, without having kids... She won't have any descendants... which means no Nadia!"

Crono was (still) shocked.

"There may still be time! If we can rescue the Queen, the timeline should be restored!"

Crono and Lucca raced off to find the Queen...

..._And so..._

With a flash of light, Marle re-appeared.

Lucca knelt down. "Princess Nadia. Thank goodness you're alright!"

"I was someplace cold and dark and alone... Is that what it's like to... die? ...But you two rescued me, didn't you." Then, the name she'd been addressed by sunk in. "Princess Nadia... uh-oh."

Marle giggled a bit. "You figured it out, did you? I'm sorry to have deceived you, but you wouldn't have shown me around the fair if you'd known who I was, would you have, Crono?"

Crono disagreed. "I would still have shown you around."

"Oh Crono! That's what I love about you!"

Lucca added, "He would have been all flustered and would have tried to be formal, though."

Marle said, "Well, I prefer 'Marle' over 'Princess' anyway."

After a brief pause, Marle asked, "So what now? Do we go home?"

Lucca looked away from both her and Crono. "We can't," she said so quietly it was hard to make out.

"What?"

"I said we can't go home. At least, not for quite a while." Lucca looked back at them, her eyes pleading for forgiveness. "I couldn't find a way to reliably open Gates from the other side. I may have to construct another Telepod to open the Gate to get us home. At the very least, I'm going to need to study the readings I got when I came back through time, and I'll need to construct something or other to open the Gate. The problem is, they just don't have the technology for that in this time-period."

Marle's eyes widened. "You mean, we're stuck here?"

Lucca shook her head. "I don't think so. I'm confident I can construct what I need given enough time and resources. However, building all the equipment I need from scratch... It could take years." She looked Marle in the eyes, then Crono. "I'll find a way to get us back, I promise. However, it won't be any time soon. I'm sorry."

Crono put his hand on Lucca's shoulder, and Marle said, "It's okay, it's not your fault."

After she was certain Lucca wasn't blaming herself too badly, Marle turned around and walked over to the window and looked out. "So, this is our home for now. The Middle Ages. I suppose it could be worse, but I sure am going to miss Ice Cream..."

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Plans:

**Part One:**

Crono, Soldier of Guardia! Lucca, the great Inventor! Marle – not the heir to the throne just yet, and don't you forget it!

The Hero Tata Appears!

Denendoro Mountains: The Quest for the Masamune and the True Hero

The Battle for Zennan Bridge

Crono, Lucca, and Marle – Knights of Guardia!

"One day, a swordsmith will appear to repair the Masamune..." But in the mean time, can't anything convince Frog to join the battle against Magus?!

Magus is killed by the Demon Lavos he summoned, but his forces fight on – the great heroes confront Magus's lieutenants Ozzie, Slash, and Flea.

Epilogue: Just a few years later, Lucca has an impressive Lab. Seals it up, and the Heroes depart for the future!

**Part Two:**

...The Gate was fading when they used it, so they don't appear exactly 400 years later. Instead, they arrive either after the fall of Guardia, or just after they left. If just after they left, "Halt! Kidnapper!" - But this Marle's lost any habits of submission she once had, and all three are used to Justice by the Sword...

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Author's Note: That's all my ideas for now. No plot notes or story fragments for "Stranded in Time – 2300 AD" either, I'm sorry to say.


End file.
